


Ones who ride horses

by Spylace



Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Spoilers, Thor: Dark World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 06:57:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spylace/pseuds/Spylace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is a curious thing when he tosses his cup that it does not return to his fingers but rather disappears as mother does when she is called away. (Spoilers for the movie)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ones who ride horses

**Author's Note:**

> Something I thought of right after seeing the movie. So if you don't want any spoilers, and I know there's going to be spoilers because it hasn't been released yet globally, turn back now or forever hold your peace.

It is a curious thing when he tosses his cup that it does not return to his fingers but rather disappears as mother does when she is called away.

Loki, who has been down here for so long he rouses himself to watch the petty rabble of prisoners and guards march past, is intrigued at this turn of events. For eons, he has been the self-appointed secret keeper to portals across Asgard. There is no other who knows the intricate doorways better than he, which ones open during new moon or which reveal themselves upon the second tide when the waves pull back like a woman’s thighs. Warriors may be called brave for the number of scalps they take but Loki the trickster has done one better for it was he who climbed the crags of city limits, setting foot on its plutonian heights.

So many thrills and wonders he witnessed from jumping realms only to be called a liar or a snitch. Mother... Frigga taught him many things, womanly things like seior and weaving but she also taught him there was no shame to his curiosity and he is curious.

Loki licks his lips. He would have tested the phenomenon in moments but for his loss of magic. Odin was so fearful of his trick, the things he denounced as womanly arts and forbade anyone from learning, he had them all but sealed. He stands dazzled as the portal yawns, swirls of black blooming before his eyes. His hand fits neatly and in an instant, he is transported.

 

He has never been here before.

Momentarily, he feels afraid.

He was underground, at the edge of a crumbling city that could have been great but was instead laid to waste. Calmly, Loki observes his surroundings, aware that he does not have much time. Magic crackles beneath his fingertips green and malign. This is infinitely better than the pretty room he had been caged in though not by much. He sees no way out of this place and as fond as Thor was of reminding him, he cannot fly.

He approaches the pillar of stone which emits a red light. Liquid erupted from the edge in delicate red plumes. It was nothing like he had ever seen. One of his father’s relics perhaps? Discarded and forgotten?

“Hello there” He greets, a polite smile carving his place. “And who might you be?”

The light pulses brighter and brighter until it almost fills the entire chamber. But not quite.

Loki takes a step back with a gasp. As a seiomenn, he could sense the light reaching out for him, its sticky fingers leaving an ashen residue on his sleeve. “I’m afraid” he says in distaste, false sorrow coloring his tone. “I must decline. The guards will be returning soon and they will be displeased to see me missing from my cell.”

The light begins to burn.

 

Red is the color of his brother’s cape, his blood when it was spilt on the ground, the flush of embarrassment on his cheeks and the brunt of his father’s disappointment. They don’t even have the decency to take him to the healing ward but treat him out in the open where other prisoners can see and jeer at the pale flesh of his naked body, the way his limbs rise and fall like the waves.

He decides that next time, he will ask for curtains instead of books. Something modern. It is a strangely Midgardian concept that Loki blinks, allowing the maiden at his head to pour her foul concoction down his throat. Some of it spills into his hair and it is messy. He lashes out. The results, he observes distantly, are quite astounding.

 

There are screams in the echo of silence, Loki comes to a sharp pinging in his ears.

 _What have you done?_ His father demands but he quips simply “Isn’t it enough?”

A sharp blow to his head and he is in the throes of laughter, naked and rolling at the Allfather’s feet.

Stop! Or you will kill him!

It would be a mercy compared to millennia of forced imprisonment like he’s a bug beneath the glass for the new recruits to gawk at.

You knew, you knew, you knew, you always knew

His eyes flutter. The years have not been kind to his father. Blood drips from the end of his great spear. Thor tries to reason with him. His brother should know by now there is no reasoning with a tyrant.

The thing in his body is the Aether, something as old as time. He idly wonders what he can do with it and the way his father and brother are watching him, they wonder as well. He tries to smile at the two but his face throbs in time to the ticking in his chest.

A season and a day since the last they met, Loki pipes “Hello brother”.

**Author's Note:**

> Favorite part of the movie? Well um, the way Thor is so serious while everyone else is just fucking around :)


End file.
